The efficient use of the bandwidth of available communication links is an important concern in most communications networks. This is because radio networks and leased lines with scarce bandwidth, i.e. with limited and/or expensive bandwidth, may be used in these networks.
Furthermore, some communications networks provide multi-service transport. Such networks may for instance be IP- or Ethernet-based multi-service transport networks and, in particular, the LTE radio access network. In these networks, different traffic types share the same network resources, including the network nodes and links, at the sane time. Different requirements, notably regarding the transmission delay and call blocking rate, apply to the different types of traffic. Traffic control techniques are generally used to meet these different requirements. These techniques include packet scheduling and queuing, prioritization and call admission control. The mechanisms implementing the traffic control techniques are set up in the network nodes transporting the packets, in packet-switched communication networks.
Resource reservation includes setting up, in the network, which resources should be reserved for a particular traffic type. Resource reservation in communication networks providing multi-service transport, and, in particular, determining and providing in an efficient manner the capacity to be reserved in a network for a particular mix of traffic is a complex task. Providing capacity “in an efficient manner” means here providing capacity without wasting bandwidth, i.e. without over-dimensioning network links or without reserving, and thus paying for, much more bandwidth of a leased line than actually necessary.
Further difficulties are to estimate the resource demand of future traffic load and provide an optimum dimensioning and resource reservation for a time period.
It is desirable to improve the dimensioning and reservation methods of the prior art to increase the efficiency of network use.